In this thread I ask You to share with us things that You do or did in the past that helped You advance in Spiritual/Magickal/Occult/Psychic terms.
I will begin:
Prāṇāyāma:
You dont have to sit still in your room to practice Prāṇāyāma, especially if You live a busy lifestyle.
I personally began with simply counting my inhale, hold, exhale time using steps whenever I walked.
I would Inhale for 5 steps, hold for 2, then exhale for 5.
That Routine alone after just a few days made me more calm, my behaviour less compulsive, and greatly incerased my mental functions such as memory, the quality and speed of thinking etc.
I was feeling better and much less stressed also.
My ability to remember dreams and frequency of Lucid Dreams also incerased significantly.
As a more Advanced version of this exercise I would Synchronise My breathing with my Heartbeat
inhale for 5 (beats), hold for 2, exhale for 5 etc.
My opinion is that synchronising breath is in some way more beneficial when You are refering to something about You (steps, heartbeats) than to something outside (seconds).
And of Course 5,2,5 model was just comfortable for me. Dont push Yourself in it, For You it Could be like 3,1,3 or 6,3,6. Dont push Yourself.
Lucid Dreaming:
Well, To be Honest, any practice that is done to improve your ability to lucid dream is bound to, sooner or later develop You spiritually .
Dream Journal:
While its primarily used to improve Your dream memory, after some time helped me understood my subconscious mind more. When You read Your dreams and compare it to what You have experienced later(that day, that week, that year) You will find a very interesting similarities and Your ability to decipher Your subconscious (think conceptualy) will improve greatly. Not to mention intuition and precognitive abilities. That alone is a very powerful routine for sure.
Reality Test/ Every Day Awareness:
Once the ability to remember at least one or two dreams every night is developed, it is time to take control of your dreams.
I did this with succes in two ways.
The First Being Reality Tests:
You can hold Your nose with Your fingers and try to inhale several times a day
The thing is, after some time this will become Your routine, and You will also do this in Your dreams.
But, if You will try this in Your dream, You will actually be able to inhale via closed nose, that way You will realize You are in dream.
You can also double chceck what time it is.
If you do this while dreaming, You will discover that the time will be very different on the second check, and often some hilarious hour like 81:512 etc. That way You will also realize You are in dream.
There are various other methods of reality testing, the two mentioned above should give you a general understanding. Side benefit of such a practice is incerased awareness, and that leads me to a second, somewhat more advanced method:
Every Day Awareness.
In this practice Every moment becomes a reality test. You are fully aware of Your body, and Your environment, and constantly test Your reality via everything you are aware of. ''Could this, this and this happen only in a dream, or is it real? This method realy explodes Your awareness to a very high level.
You will also notice You are more receptive to something even different than ‘‘energy’’, You will Notice the ‘‘Interconnection of Everything’’ on a daily(and nightly) basis.
I have some more to share with You, I will do it in a few days.
Now its Your turn to share Your knowledge, Im waiting ^^